• Black athletes shouldn't be excused for racial hypocrisy
  There's a backup tight end for the Dallas Cowboys who is doing everything he can possibly do to invite self-promotional controversy.

• Work ethic, dedication and drive make Cardinals' Albert Pujols consistently great
  With the All-Star Game coming here on Tuesday, everyone is trying to find something new to say about the best player in baseball, Cardinals star Albert Pujols. It isn't easy. The reason it isn't easy is because Pujols' hallmark has been his consistency - he has been so ridiculously consistent - and the truth is that consistency doesn't make for great storytelling.

• In retrospect, losing Torii Hunter hurt Twins
  Twins fans are accustomed to lamenting Johan Santana as the star who got away. That is no longer a relevant complaint, because Santana was determined to leave the Twins for a bigger market and an immense contract, and he would be gone today no matter what the Twins would have done with him during the winter of 2007-08.

• Fuz-ee brings the fun back on course
  This was a gorgeous summer day in Minnesota and Fuzzy Zoeller was playing the seventh hole at TPC Twin Cities. It's a short par-4, and with a helping wind several of the Champions Tour golfers were trying to drive the green.

• NFL players recall the life and personality of Steve McNair during funeral
  Ray Lewis remembered welcoming Steve McNair to the Baltimore Ravens' locker room, after they were fierce adversaries during McNair's run with the Tennessee Titans and occasional teammates in the Pro Bowl.

• Random evidence of a cluttered mind . . .
  Baseball owns the national sports spotlight with All-Star Break festivities going on in St. Louis, where Mark McGwire will not so much throw out the first pitch as be aggressively ignored, his very existence denied vehemently by the host Cardinals.

• Some Indians queries with tough answers . . .
  Questions about the Indians I can't answer:

• How the Cavaliers look on paper . . .
  Let's try to quantify what an expected drop in the NBA salary cap next summer means to LeBron James.

• Another weird night at the Big A, with the Angels losing players but still scoring runs and winning
  Mike Napoli was a DH, the Rally Monkey became a front-runner, and the Angels had the better bullpen Friday night, although that's kind of like saying unemployment claims only fell at a slower pace than last month.

• Jonathan Sanchez stuns the baseball world in dramatic fashion on this night
  Maybe this is just going to be one of those miracle, unexplainable, unfathomable seasons for the Giants.

• Boo! Mark Teixeira must be back in Anaheim
  ANAHEIM, Calif. - For Mark Teixeira, "the homecoming tour," which is what he kiddingly calls it, is finally coming to an end this weekend.

• George Brophy had knowledge on his side with the Twins in the 1970s
  Calvin Griffith's main baseball advisers when he brought his team to Minnesota for the 1961 season were a pair of former big-leaguers: brother-in-law Joe Haynes and brother Sherry Robertson. Haynes carried the title of executive vice president and Sherry was the farm director.

• Suns locking up Steve Nash is the right thing to do
  My first reaction when I heard the Suns and Steve Nash are closing in on a two-year, $22-million contract extension?

• Changes in salary cap and luxury tax likely to cool off NBA's free-agent market
  It doesn't matter who's coaching the Pistons.

• John Kuester's success with Pistons depends on two issues
  John Kuester seemed a little uncomfortable in his debut news conference as Pistons head coach. I don't know if that was because he was speaking to more than 100 people, or because of the gravity of the moment, or because his seat was on fire.

• Dave on Demand: The television week in review
  The new TV philosophy seems to be "if a story is worth doing, it's worth doing nonstop".

• Not such a simple solution after all
  For a moment this week, it looked like a bit of sanity might be restored to federal policy on illegal immigration. The Obama administration announced plans to discontinue a Bush-era rule that sought to force employers to fire workers whose Social Security numbers didn't match up with records in federal databases. The reason for the reversal? Those databases are riddled with too many errors.

• 5 things GM must do to thrive
  Unprecedented government assistance has given General Motors a new lease on life. Now it's up to the automaker's executives, engineers, designers and factory workers to make it more than a stay of execution.

• Dave on Demand: The television week in review
  The new TV philosophy seems to be "if a story is worth doing, it's worth doing nonstop".

• Is there a college course to teach parents how to navigate college admissions?
  Here's a radical notion: How about bringing down college costs by eliminating the tons of glossy-stock, full-color brochures with which schools inundate high school juniors and seniors?

• China's ethnic policies root cause of Uighur riots
  The following editorial appeared in The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday, July 9:

• There's no humane way to enforce an inhumane law
  The following editorial appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday, July 7:

• Into the white-knuckle blue
  There's been a lot of scary news recently. Where to begin?

• VW-Porsche ties may steer industry future
  I'd love to be a guest at the next Porsche-Piech family dinner. Not because two of the richest and most secretive clans in Europe probably pour a dynamite single-malt, but to see the inevitable food fight.

• Bucks expect to see some light
  You might have heard about the NBA's salary cap taking a dive this season and next for basically the same reasons that might have slashed your household budget.